Remake fatigue aside, the news that Michael B. Jordan is teaming up with MGM to remake The Thomas Crown Affair is tremendous for one very crucial reason. It’s not that we need another spin around the art museum with the suave character made famous first by Steve McQueen, in 1968, and then by Pierce Brosnan, in 1999. But the fact that Jordan himself brought this project to MGM shows a promising young actor taking very smart control of his own career.

Last year was a tumultuous year for Jordan. He went from the lows of Fantastic Four to the ecstatic highs of Creed and clearly learned a very valuable lesson about carefully selecting his projects. “I don’t want to work just to work,” he told Bill Simmons on a podcast recorded last November. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Insiders say Jordan came up with idea for the remake and pitched it to MGM execs.” There are no writers or directors attached to the project so this is purely Jordan zeroing in on the kind of role he wants to play to help shape the next stage of his career and going for it with gusto.

In both its iterations, The Thomas Crown Affair is a slick, high-class caper with a deeply romantic love story. That’s already a departure for Jordan who often appears as underprivileged kids with something to prove and has rarely devoted the lion’s share of his screen time to playing the romantic lead. Jordan played third fiddle to Zac Efron and Miles Teller in the romantic comedy That Awkward Moment and the romance in Creed was far from that movie’s strongest element. (The real love story there was between Adonis and Rocky.)

But there is no doubt Jordan can turn up the romantic smolder when he needs to as he ably proved opposite Jurnee Smollett-Bell on Friday Night Lights and Sarah Ramos on Parenthood. But it’s time he gave moviegoing audiences a glimpse of what TV audiences have known for a long time. During that Simmons podcast, Jordan cited “Leo,” “Denzel,” “Hanks,” and “Cruise” as his inspirations in terms of shaping a career in Hollywood that lasts. “I have not played a cop. I haven’t played a soldier. . . . A villain, I haven’t ever played a villian,” Jordan said making it clear that he’s eager not to get boxed in to sports or superhero movies. “I want my career to be a reflection of what I like, and I like a lot of different things. So I want to take my time,” he concluded. Lucky for us, one of those things he likes appears to be looking slick while robbing museums and (maybe) getting the girl. With the right writer/director behind him, this could be another big step in a career we all hope goes the distance.